Re: “Homeless ‘camping ban’ quickly becoming one of Denver’s most expensive political fights,” March 9 news story

I work downtown so I see the chronic homeless every workday. Portland temporarily suspended the city “camping ban” about five years ago. After less than a year of problems with the “safe sleep” policy, they re-instituted the ban.

When I visited Portland during the suspension of the ban, it was a mess. All the downtown city parks had been taken over by the homeless. No one was really in them except the homeless and those just passing through. The nice picnic areas along the east side of the Willamette river? All homeless camps with the usual detritus that homeless camps produce — human waste, dirty clothing, drug paraphernalia, mounds of beer bottles and cans and just plain trash.

Downtown businesses had to have suffered with the lack of traffic. I say we learn our lesson from Portland. I’m not sure we are ready to relinquish all the downtown city parks to the chronic homeless. There have to be better solutions.

Mike Conkey, Thornton

Tax cuts, deﬁcits and spending

Re: “Trump’s $4.7 trillion proposal,” March 12 news story

There was no income tax cut in 2018! There was a tax rate cut, which stimulated the economy and resulted in an increase in tax revenue.

The increase in the deficit is not from a tax cut. The deficit is because expenditures increased faster than tax revenues increased. Individual tax revenues were up by almost $100 billion while corporate tax revenue declined by about $90 billion in 2018 according to the Congressional Budget Office. And, yes, the top 20 percent of earners paid the vast majority of those individual income taxes.

So when you hear or read comments like, “the president cut taxes for the rich” and “ the GOP massive tax giveaway,” you can take that as just political hyperbole. It is simply not true.

Gerald Mitchell, Westminster

Mr. Trump now seeks $8.6 billion in wall money to add to the $1.375 billion Congress recently authorized, plus the $6.6 billion he will repurpose via his executive and emergency powers: $16.6 billion. Are words like “billion” and “trillion” are lulling us into mass coma? Better to write $16,600,000,000.

One million is 1,000 piles of $1,000 (how many of those do you have lying around?). One billion is 1,000,000 x $1,000. One trillion is 1,000 x 1,000,000 x $1,000. Head spinning?

The increase in the national debt during the past two years is about $2,000,000,000,000.

I am not a budget hawk. I accept that the U.S. should borrow, especially in harder times, to bolster the economy and to fortify infrastructure. But I hope we can be mindful of the real meaning of those careless words ‘$billion’ and ‘$trillion’ that we are sinking into good or lousy purposes.

Brian Price, Denver

The Trump federal budget proposal is set to push the federal deficit past $1 trillion in a single year during a period of economic expansion. Normally tax revenues peak during this point of an economic cycle. Not this time.

Now the federal government is borrowing money to fund tax cuts for the rich. When the recession comes, as it surely will, tax revenues will fall and spending will be cut — this time on Social Security and Medicare. You have been warned. And, should you be tempted to do so in the future, please never allow the phrases “Republican Party” and “fiscally responsible” to appear together in the same sentence.

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